The+Tips+for+Reading+Poetry

__//Important tips to reading poetry//__ by Jim Burke

 * ===The title is there for a reason. Read the title first to get an idea of what to expect.===
 * ===Read the poem straight through without stopping to analyze it. Half of the fun of poetry is how it feels to say it. Read the poem for what it is—a performance, an event, an experience at once personal and musical, private and public.===
 * ===Look for a pattern. Patterns in poems might be grammatical, sensory, or object-related, evolving and changing from the beginning to the end of the poem.===
 * ===Identify the narrator. The poem is not always narrated by the poet.===
 * ===Reflect in your writing. This is an important step. Make sure you’re responding to the poetry. Your journal responses are the best way to connect to the poet.===
 * ===Read the poem again!!! The second time through a quality poem you will find many new things.===
 * ===Find the crucial moments in the poem. Often a poem, like a story, has moments when the actions shifts, the direction changes, the meaning alters. (These “crucial moments” are called voltas from the Italian word that means “to jump”)===